Psoralea fleta C.H.Stirt.

Blue willow pea (en)

Species

Angiosperms > Fabales > Fabaceae > Psoralea

Characteristics

Tall, slender, willowy shrubs or small trees, 4-5 m tall, reseeder, usually dominant and forming dense stands. Stems single, erect, woody throughout and may be weakly furrowed, but generally rounded; branches pale green, lightly gland-dotted, flexuous, emerging at upper parts of tall bare stems. Seasonal shoots drooping, especially when in flower, covered in a close white pubescence, smooth, striate and non-pustulate; leaves absent, but may have a tiny filiform leaflet (9-11 mm long) on some shoots. Scales 3.0-5.0 x 0.7-0.9 mm, smaller on flowering shoots, longer than petioles, not fused to petioles, obliquely narrowly ovate to subulate, clasping, glabrous and not tightly congested. Inflorescences borne in uppermost axils of seasonal shoots, pseudo-spicate, congested, up to three flowers per axil; pedicel below cupulum 1-2 mm long, stout and rigid, shorter than the subtending leaflet; cupulum trilobed with one of the lobes scarcely developed, broadly triangular, glabrous but hairy on lobes; pedicel above cupulum 3-4(5) mm long. Flowers 12-16 mm long, light purple, maturing sequentially; bracts reduced to tuft or ring of hairs. Calyx 7-8 mm long, tube 2.0-4.5 mm long, glabrous externally, inner face of calyx lobes sparsely covered in small black stubby hairs; lobes shorter than the tube, unequal; lateral and vexillar calyx lobes acute, straight, triangular; lower lobe 6 mm long, 2.0-2.5 mm wide, acuminate and narrower than the other four lobes; vexillar calyx lobes free above the tube; calyx shorter than corolla; ribs distinctly thickened; glands dense, constant in size and equally distributed across tube and lobes; lobe margins ciliate. Standard petal 12-14 x 12-13 mm, orbicular; auricles present; apex rounded or obtuse; claw 4 mm long, elongated and narrow. Wing petals 12.5-15.0 x 4.5-5.5 mm, up-curving, auricles present, fused to but longer than keel, claw 4 mm long. Keel 11-13 x 4 mm, claw 5-7 mm long. Androecium 10 mm long, scarcely fenestrate. Pistil 8 mm long, stipitate; ovary 1 mm long, glabrous, sparsely covered in club-shaped glands; style glabrous, curved at 4 mm, thickened at point of flexure. Fruits 5.0 x 2.5-3.0 mm, finely reticulate, papery. Seeds 4.0 x 2.5 mm, reinform; hilum sub-central, blackish grey.
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Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Mature height (meter) 4.0 - 5.0
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Soil humidity 7-9
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Cultivation

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Distribution

Psoralea fleta world distribution map, present in South Africa

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77149187-1
WFO ID wfo-0001042601
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Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Psoralea fleta